Subaru’s #MeetanOwner Instagram & YouTube Marketing Campaign

Case Study: How Subaru Dominated Instagram & YouTube With Top Social Media Stars

Subaru is one of the fastest growing companies in the U.S. auto industry, with sales up 10% this year. Recently, Subaru has been building upon its strong market presence using influencer marketing.

In this case study, we’ll explore why Subaru’s “Meet An Owner” campaign succeeded by examining three of Subaru’s most effective influencer partnerships.

Approach

For its #MeetanOwner campaign Subaru collaborated with 20 Instagram influencers, ranging from artists to adventure photographers to professional athletes. The overall goal of the campaign was to foster positive brand sentiment and promote Subaru to a broad audience by partnering with a wide range of prominent influencers.

Results

The campaign as a whole generated over 1.9M likes and 9K comments through 58 sponsored posts with an average engagement rate of 9%.

Additionally, it generated nearly 2.5M views and 73K likes on YouTube with an average engagement rate of 5%.

The unifying hashtag #MeetanOwner was also employed to increase overall brand awareness and made it easy for Instagram users to follow the campaign and showcase their own Subaru car.

Key Influencers

Zach King is an Instagram influencer who performs eye-catching digital magic tricks. His clever tricks have mass appeal, and consequently, Subaru was able to reach an enormous, diverse audience by partnering with King.

For Subaru’s campaign, King created two Instagram videos that featured magic tricks centered around Subaru cars. In his first sponsored post, King created an illusion where a three piece cut out of a Subaru car was replaced by a real Subaru. The use of a branded prop enabled him to promote Subaru while sticking to his tried-and-true content style, making for an enjoyable video that received 11% engagement. Subaru entrusted King with creative freedom, allowing him to satisfy his audience while simultaneously showcasing the brand.

Devin Graham, known by the alias Devin Super Tramp, is an adventurous YouTuber best known for his extreme stunt videos. He created three YouTube videos in partnership with Subaru, two of which included professional stunts and one that featured Graham discussing his journey as a creator and a stuntman.

His involvement in the #MeetanOwner campaign effectively strengthened ties between Subaru and outdoor adventure while reaching an enormous audience.

One of his Subaru sponsored YouTube videos features him slip-sliding off a 500-foot cliff. Graham thanked Subaru in the video description and in the five sponsored Instagram posts that promoted the video. In each caption, he was clear in showcasing Subaru as making the unusual stunt possible. In one post, he says, “I’ve been driving a Subaru since I could drive at 16, and never thought I would have the chance to work with a brand I genuinely loved!” His caption highlights his positive opinion of Subaru and communicates to his audience that the brand helped to make the exciting content they enjoy a reality.

Shaun Todd McBride, better known as Shonduras, is an influencer known for his Snapchat stories and YouTube videos. In partnership with Subaru, he created 4 Instagram posts and a 5-part YouTube series called, “Our cool Subaru car and cool things we do with it,” which has garnered 11.8 million views to date. Known for his active lifestyle and laid-back personality, McBride pitched Subaru as fun, family friendly car to his large following.

In the first video of the series, McBride introduced the campaign using a series of doodles. McBride is widely known for his drawings and doodles, which were a large part of his rise to social media stardom. By sticking to his usual style of content, McBride, like King and Graham, was able to deliver the type of content his audience knows and loves. In this way, he was able to effectively engage with his audience while also clearly promoting Subaru cars.

Key Takeaways

The success of Subaru’s #MeetanOwner campaign showcases a brand’s ability to reach a diverse audience with the help of social media influencers. Subaru sought to position its vehicles as being suitable for any adventure, and did so by partnering with a variety of passionate influencers.